Today's entry I'm going to compare and contrast the works of Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, with photograph(er)s of present day.
As a reminder, Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was a pioneer in still photography using a method he and partner Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used called daguerreotype. You can read my first blog post for more information.
Choosing Daguerre is turning out to be a little tricky because one could say that all photography is like his because he was the first. However, Daguerre seemed to have focused on portraits and landscapes. These categories seem pretty broad but he literally did portraits and landscapes.
The following are five images I'm going to try and break down for you:
1. This is from Jerry Spagnoli, who lives and works in New York City. He takes portraits of people using a dageurreotype like camera and also uses the old methods to develope them.
I believe this man's name is James Ivory. I don't know much about him but this photograph is similar to the works of Daguerre because it's very old-timey. I can't tell if it's just the subject that's making it feel that way. The angle of the photo and also where the person is in relation to the actual photo is similar. The photo is still grainy but with the technology of today, there is still some detail. Also, by ‘detail’, I mean only his face is detailed. The rest of him is out of focus.
2. This is a photo of Barack Obama's inaguration. I didn't know it was also by Jerry Spagnoli until I started reading up more about it but anyway..
Kinda of looks like an Instagram, no? More about that below.
This is an almost unreal photograph! I love the blue sky (although probably photo shopped in) and everything looks old again. The building looks scratchy as with other Daguerre photos and the people are blurred probably because of the long exposure. However these people probably weren't moving too much and not quick enough so they were captured. I think the sky is clear not only because maybe it was a nice day but because of the long exposure. If you look at other Daguerre landscape photos there are never any clouds. The only thing sharp in this photograph are the buildings because buildings don't move!
3. This is from local photographer Mike Robinson.
Because everything in this photo doesn't move, he was able to capture, in detail, the bridge and the tree. This photograph is really light and has almost no real colours. This photographer also uses and older style of processing his pictures, which is also likely influenced by Daguerre. He also mostly does portrait and landscape photography, which you can see from the link above.
4. This is a portrait of Patty Smith by my favourite Annie Leibovitz.
I’ve talked about Leibovitz’ work before, and although it is a body of it’s own now, her older material reflected a Daguerre style. It is black and white; even though I’m sure colour film existed at the time, she chose to do this portrait, self portraits, and other modern photos in black and white. There are only real details on the face and some on her clothes. Even though it's a little grainy, her face and shoulders are the focal point of this photo. There isn’t anything in the background as with all portraits from Daguerre’s time.
5. You!
There’s an application (App) for iPhones called Instagram where users can take a photo with their phones and run it under filters to make it look old-timey. It’s popularity comes from the amazing photos it surprisingly takes as well as it lets you share your photos between other users over the phone or social networking like Facebook or Twitter. Now anyone with an iPhone can take pictures that look like they’re from the past. Landscape photos using Instagram often resemble that of a Daguerre photograph. Objects that are further away are more blurry and grainy that the objects that are closer.
*The first photo is by Julia Hurford. The second was found at OkayGreat, and the third was found at Nuwomb.
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